The history that needs to be examined

20 August 2013

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The Institute of State history of the State of
Committee of Science of RK held a round table meeting on “The New approaches to
understand the scope and impact of "terror" and starvation in the
Soviet Union in 1930." The discussion of such an important topic, from a
historical point of view, was attended by researchers of the Institute of State
History as well as by the teaching staff of the Eurasian National University named after L. Gumilev and Nazarbayev University. Moreover, the discussion was
also attended by the internationally recognized scholar, Steven Wheatcroft, who
specializes in this period of the Soviet Union history.

The relevance of the topic raised by historians is due
to the fact, that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the tragic events
that took place in Kazakhstan – The Great jute, which claimed the lives of
millions Kazakh people. According to the director of the Institute of State
History Burkitbay Ayagan, the round table meeting is of a great interest and it
is mostly because the dialogue brought together Kazakh and Western scholars who
study the same problem, but with a different vision and understanding.

There are many versions regarding the famine, one of
them is that the famine itself has been deliberately provoked in the Soviet
Union by the current leaders of the country. By contrast, Stephen Wheatcroft
has his own opinion about this question – A very unwise government policy as
well as the ill-being natural factors was the cause of the famine. The position
of Kazakh scientists is quite similar: the economic policy of the Soviet state
was flawed and unsubstantiated. As it was explained by B. Ayagan, the vast and
ambitious construction projects of the government party, required significant resources,
including food, but instead of addressing these issues through the market,
Party carried out reconnaissance.

According to the director of the Institute Burkitbay
Ayagan, the book named “The Truth about the famine years of 1928-1932” will be
released in May. It was prepared by the staff of the Institute. In this book,
the scientists try to analyze the situation and find the root cause of the
tragedy. The preface of the book will be written by Professor Stephen
Wheatcroft.

The material is presented by the Institute of State
History of Committee of Science of RK.

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